Christine Holt awarded €1 million prize for research on connection between eye and brain

Prof Christine Holt from the PDN has received the 2016 Antonio Champalimaud Vision Award, the largest in the world in the field of vision

Professor Christine Holt FRS, FMedSci shares the €1 million award with John Flanagan of Harvard Medical School, Carol A. Mason of Columbia University and Carla Shatz of Stanford University. The prize was announced on Tuesday 6 September and marked the 10th anniversary of the prestigious award. The winners were praised for their ground-breaking work into how what our eyes see is transmitted to the brain.

"This work" reads the prize announcement "has illuminated our understanding of the way in which our eyes send signals to the appropriate areas of the brain [...] and may offer hope of fighting vision disorders by means of neurological therapies".

The Portuguese based Champalimaud Foundation has launched the award in 2006 and is supported by the World Health Organisation's 'Vision 2020 - The Right to Sight' programme. The award is the largest in the world in the area of vision.